Link CLI

Link CLI lets agents get secure, one-time-use payment credentials from a Link wallet to complete purchases on your behalf — without storing your real card details.

The CLI can produce one of two credential types:

• A virtual card (PAN) for use with a standard web checkout form. The issued card works anywhere, and is not restricted to Link-enabled sellers or sellers that use Stripe.
• A Shared Payment Token (SPT) when the seller accepts programmatic payments through Machine Payment Protocols (MPP)

For now, this is only available to US Link accounts.

Installation

npm i -g @stripe/link-cli

Or run directly with npx:

npx @stripe/link-cli

Use with agents

Install the skill:

npx skills add stripe/link-cli

By default when called from an agent (non-TTY), all commands use toon output — a compact, LLM-friendly text format. All commands accept --format [format] for structured output. Other formats: json, yaml, md, jsonl.

List available commands:

link-cli --llms-full

Get a command's full schema with --schema. Example:

link-cli spend-request create --schema

MCP Server

Link CLI can run as a local MCP server. Add the following to your MCP client config (.mcp.json, etc.)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "link": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@stripe/link-cli", "--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Quickstart

Run a guided onboarding and demo flow:

link-cli onboard

Login

The link-cli requires a Link account. You can log in to your existing one or register online.

link-cli auth login

You receive a verification URL and a short phrase. Visit the URL, log in to your Link account, and enter the phrase to approve the connection.

List payment methods

link-cli payment-methods list

Returns the cards and bank accounts saved to your Link account. Use the id field as payment_method_id in the next step. If you have no payment methods, add new ones in Link.

Create a spend request

Create a spend request with a payment method, merchant details, line items, and amounts:

link-cli spend-request create \
  --payment-method-id csmrpd_xxx \
  --merchant-name "Stripe Press" \
  --merchant-url "https://press.stripe.com" \
  --context "Purchasing 'Working in Public' from press.stripe.com. The user initiated this purchase through the shopping assistant." \
  --amount 3500 \
  --line-item "name:Working in Public,unit_amount:3500,quantity:1" \
  --total "type:total,display_text:Total,amount:3500" \
  --request-approval

The --request-approval flag triggers a push notification to the user for approval, then polls until the request is approved or denied.

Easily approve requests with the Link app.

Line items and totals

--line-item and --total use repeatable key:value format.

--line-item keys: name (required), quantity, unit_amount, description, sku, url, image_url, product_url

--line-item "name:Running Shoes,unit_amount:12000,quantity:1,description:Trail runners"

--total keys: type (required; one of: subtotal, tax, total), display_text (required), amount (required)

--total "type:subtotal,display_text:Subtotal,amount:12000" \
--total "type:total,display_text:Total,amount:12000"

Credential types

By default, a spend request provisions a virtual card. For merchants that support the Machine Payments Protocol (HTTP 402) and the Stripe payment method, instead pass --credential-type "shared_payment_token".

Execute payment

The approved spend request includes a card object with number, cvc, exp_month, exp_year, billing_address, and valid_until. Enter these into the merchant's checkout form.

link-cli spend-request retrieve lsrq_001

By default, retrieving a spend request doesn't include card details. Pass --include card to see unmasked card details.

To avoid leaking card credentials into agent transcripts or logs, use --output-file to write the full card to a secure local file while stdout shows only redacted data (brand, last4, expiry):

link-cli spend-request retrieve lsrq_001 --include card --output-file /tmp/link-card.json --format json

The file is created with 0600 permissions. If the file already exists, the command fails unless --force is passed. When --output-file is set, the JSON output replaces the card object with redacted fields and adds a card_output_file path.

For agent polling, pass --interval and optionally --max-attempts:

link-cli spend-request retrieve lsrq_001 --interval 2 --max-attempts 150

Polling exits successfully only after the request reaches a terminal status such as approved, denied, or expired. If polling reaches --timeout or exhausts --max-attempts while the request is still non-terminal, the command exits non-zero with code: "POLLING_TIMEOUT" so callers do not treat a still-pending request as complete.

If the merchant supports MPP, use link-cli mpp pay instead:

link-cli mpp pay https://climate.stripe.dev/api/contribute \
  --spend-request-id lsrq_001 \
  --method POST \
  --data '{"amount":100}'

Advanced

Authentication

link-cli auth login --client-name "Claude Code"   # identify the connecting agent
link-cli auth status                               # check auth status
link-cli auth logout                               # disconnect

When you provide --client-name, the Link app displays it when you approve the connection — for example, Claude Code on my-macbook instead of link-cli on my-macbook.

auth status includes an update field when a newer version is available:

{
  "authenticated": true,
  "update": {
    "current_version": "0.1.2",
    "latest_version": "0.2.0",
    "update_command": "npm install -g @stripe/link-cli"
  }
}

Set NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 to suppress update checks (for example, in CI).

Spend request lifecycle

A spend request moves through: create → request approval → approved (with credentials).

Required fields for create: payment_method_id, merchant_name, merchant_url, context, amount

Constraints: context must be at least 100 characters; amount must not exceed 50000 (cents); currency must be a 3-letter ISO code. Test mode: Pass --test to create testmode credentials (uses test card 4242424242424242), useful for development and integration testing without real payment methods.

# Update before approval
link-cli spend-request update lsrq_001 \
  --merchant-url https://press.stripe.com/working-in-public

# Request approval separately (alternative to create --request-approval)
link-cli spend-request request-approval lsrq_001

# Retrieve at any time (includes card credentials after approval)
link-cli spend-request retrieve lsrq_001

MPP

Use mpp pay to complete purchases on merchants that use the Machine Payments Protocol. The spend request must use credential_type: "shared_payment_token" and you must approve it before paying. The SPT is one-time-use — if payment fails, create a new spend request.

link-cli mpp pay https://climate.stripe.dev/api/contribute \
  --spend-request-id lsrq_001 \
  --method POST \
  --data '{"amount":100}' \
  --header "X-Custom: value"

Use mpp decode to validate a raw WWW-Authenticate header and extract the network_id needed for shared_payment_token spend requests:

link-cli mpp decode \
  --challenge 'Payment id="ch_001", realm="merchant.example", method="stripe", intent="charge", request="..."'

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
LINK_API_BASE_URL	Override the API base URL
LINK_AUTH_BASE_URL	Override the auth base URL
LINK_HTTP_PROXY	Route all requests through an HTTP proxy (requires undici)

Onboard

Run the guided setup flow — authenticates, checks payment methods, shows the app download QR, and runs both demo flows:

link-cli onboard

Demo

Run an interactive demo of both Link payment flows (always uses test mode — no real charges):

link-cli demo              # shows menu to choose flow
link-cli demo --only-card  # virtual card flow only
link-cli demo --only-spt   # machine payment (SPT) flow only

Development

pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm run link-cli --help

Watch mode:

pnpm run dev

Run tests:

pnpm run test

Type-check and lint:

pnpm run typecheck
pnpm biome check .

Releasing

This project uses Changesets to manage versioning and publishing. Only @stripe/link-cli is published to npm — internal packages (@stripe/link-sdk, @stripe/link-typescript-config) are ignored by changesets.

Add a changeset

When you make a user-facing change, add a changeset before merging:

pnpm changeset

Follow the prompts to select the package (@stripe/link-cli) and the semver bump type (patch, minor, or major). This creates a markdown file in .changeset/ describing the change.

Version

Once changesets have accumulated on main, create a version PR:

pnpm changeset version

This consumes all pending changesets, bumps the version in packages/cli/package.json, and updates CHANGELOG.md.

Publish

After the version PR is merged:

pnpm run build
pnpm changeset publish

This publishes @stripe/link-cli to npm. CI also runs pnpm --filter @stripe/link-cli publish --dry-run --no-git-checks on every push to main to verify the package is publishable.